Government : State Auditor race still undecided

Following the election on Tuesday night. the race for the State Auditor position is still undecided.

Two counties in Iowa have yet to submit final numbers for the election, Des Moines and Warren counties had technical errors requiring recounts.

The Secretary of State Paul Pate has ordered an expedited recount of the votes in these two counties.

Pate said that there were also delays in Linn County reporting, with the results being uploaded after 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Warren County supervisors have authorized the recount, and it is expected to start on Thursday morning. In Des Moines County the supervisors are scheduled to meet on Thursday morning.

At this point, State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic incumbent, holds a slight lead over Republican challenger Todd Halbur, according to the state's unofficial election results.

In Des Moines County, about 800 absentee ballots are missing from the election results. The error was a result of an error in transmitting the results after the ballots were scanned.

The absentee ballots will be recounted to verify that the results are correct. The hope is to begin the process at noon today.

Des Moines County is also watching the Iowa House District 99 race affecting Republican Matthew Rinker who is now leading the Democratic State Representative Dennis Cohoon with 771 votes.

In Warren county, there are about 2,000 uncounted ballots. The memory drives were removed too early from the tally machines. so a recount will be ordered and will take place today as well.

As part of the procedures for elections, the Secretary of State orders random recounts in each county to audit a random precinct chosen by the SOS office. The procedure is used to verify the final election numbers.